As part of his plans to tackle congestion in London, Sadiq Khan is looking at ways of discouraging workers from having their goods delivered to them at their workplace.

According to Transport for London figures, the number of delivery vans in Greater London has increased by 2% every year. With the decrease in cars on the road, the London Mayor sees reducing these numbers as a priority to combat air pollution and congestion.

Speaking to the Evening Standard last week, Khan has announced plans to set up parcel collection points in suburban Tube stations, supermarkets and corner shops, enabling workers to collect parcels on the way home.

“We have done some work on the causes of congestion. The two biggest causes of congestion in London are: one, people’s lifestyle means. They order more and more stuff by the internet that is delivered to their place of work in central London. The second is the increase in private-hire vehicles.

“In relation to deliveries, we are funding consolidation centres — hubs where things are delivered on foot or cycle or ways that don’t cause congestion. We are also speaking to employers about discouraging their staff from having things delivered to their place of work.”

There is a drive in London and many other metropolitan areas to tackle the number of delivery vehicles on city roads. London has been successful in getting more and more people onto different modes of transport but as car numbers have fallen, so delivery vans have increased, with a negative impact on congestion.

As we noted in a recent article, another possible solution is cargo bikes, such as PedalMe which, last week, successfully raised £350,000 via crowdfunding